.
The idea of intersetllar asset-stripping corporations protected by their own militaries has a certain resonance at this time, given the government sanctioned asset stripping going on in local authorities the length and bredth of the UK.
Imagine, a colonised rock, which some anonymous accountant has declared to be uneconomical, being forcibly stripped of all salvageable assets. Multiply that by hundreds as man's endeavours to carve out a toehold on and colonise new worlds is reduced to a bottom line. Plenty of scope for role-playing, tabletop battles and a mini campaign with what are essentially corporate vikings.
Anyway, good read. Has me hooked and making the daily commute something to look forward to.
Cheers
Mark
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Good book with a squirrelly ending. I would have rather read more about the corporate culture that the concept of asset stripping would have produced. I may be mis-remembering but I think your Viking analogy might bore accurate, as I dont think the crews took everything valuable but left just enough for the colony to slowly rebuild itself.
ReplyDeleteThe suits they wore plus they were based in north queensland (australia) made this a good read. Interesting concept.
ReplyDeleteAwesome book, albeit the ending was a bit out of left field... anyway, very good details and assumptions about the ships and military tech. The science is a bit wonky; rotating habs limited to 1RPM to control nausea (we know the rotation limit is higher, at least 5 or 6 RPM).
ReplyDeleteFor me, this book was a much needed reboot of the Colonial/Corporate Marine trope; the science is a bit mad but so what, the story works.
ReplyDeleteIf Dragon rebooted the marine sci fi for me, then "A Talent For War" by Jack McDevitt did the same for space fleet action; this is what a book about the 5th Frontier War would be like. Even though its written from the perspective of a treasure hunting historian, it really gets you into the story of a human-alien war; actually the story of a small part of humanity fighting a frak of a lot of aliens, while the rest of humanity fight either each other or wring their hands. McDevitt doesnt do a lot of actual combat but references to actions abound "he was a gunner at The Slot and was 2nd Officer by the time of Coromandel" and really read like history. Not suprising as a lot of the place names are vaguely familiar
Talent for War is one of my favourite books, and I like McDevitt's writing for its down to Earth feel.
ReplyDeleteHamilton's Pandora series is also well worth reading for the trains through wormholes idea if nothing else.
I've ordered Talent for War.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Mark
This is a great read :). I second the note from Ashley on Pandora. I liked Fallen Dragon but the Commonwealth Saga is stunning! I noticed you were not a fan of gaming "fluff/background" in a previous post but I have tried hard to mix in this resource striping "private army" feel to the Gruntz background, a bit like the return to the days of Empire where Companies like East India where making up the rules with their own army as they expanded to pull in global resource/trade routes. Sorry just realised I am rambling on!
ReplyDeleteNot at all, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Mark